Hi,
I’ve recently switched to DSLR as main tool for digitizing my film rolls. I’m deeply satisfied of the results I’m getting, everything looks simpler and better than my previous scans with the Epson Perfection v600.
However, sometimes I’m getting a weird issue: basically, some frames come out with a poor dynamic range or latitude - I would also say kind of bad resolution, despite the rest of the roll being perfectly fine. These weird frames are really hard to manage in LR, namely the sky blows up and pixellates while you’re trying to expose the foreground, and viceversa. Things like that.
Initially, I would think maybe the original picture was underexposed, so the DSLR can’t manage that range. But since I have the chance to look at the same frame that was scanned with the Epson, I can see that it was perfectly scanned, instead! So it looks like the scanner was better in managing the same picture, compared to the DSLR.
So I gave the original RAW files to some friends and they came up with very good results, by using other software than NLP. According to them, NLP has applied way too much contrast and clipped the blue channel. I’m not sure which can cause the issue, but since I’m converting by batch, using same input conditions, something happens during the negative conversion.
GEAR
- Negative Lab Pro v.2.3.0 + Lightroom Classic
- Canon EOS 60D + Nikon Ai-S Micro NIKKOR 55mm f/2.8
NLP CONVERSION OPTIONS I’M USING
- WB on black frame - then applied to all the negatives before converting
- cropping all negatives before converting
- Frontier
- Default
- 5%
Please see below comparative images:
EPSON
Original TIFF file - sorry, for this one I couldn’t find the negative as it came out from the scanner, but the already positive TIFF I made at that time: https://we.tl/t-GJMK4YCuYz
Final JPEG - please note color temperature not edited
DSLR - CANON 60D
Original RAW file: https://we.tl/t-DxYJwSP24L
Working files (snapshots from my LR) - Please note color temperature not edited
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After NLP conversion:
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After trying to expose the foreground:
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After trying to expose the sky:
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My best attempt of exposure, using mask on sky:
(I don’t know if you can see, but it looks like there are patterns on the sky that recall a low resolution image. I don’t know why, since all my frames are digitized with same options (aperture, time, gear) and at the same moment.)
FRIEND’S ATTEMPT USING OTHER CONVERSION THAN NLP
I hope you may know the issue whether it caused by specific options in NLP. It would be good for me to understand and fix that.
Thank you!